The paternalist is a sentimentalist at heart, and the sentimentalist is always potentially cruel.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the duality of sentimentality and its potential for cruelty within the context of paternalism.
Christopher Isherwood points out the inherent conflict in paternalism, which is often rooted in a sentimental view of reality. While a paternalist may act out of a sense of care or protection, this sentimentality can lead to misguided actions that ultimately harm those they intend to help, suggesting that emotional decisions can lack the reasoned compassion necessary for true kindness.
In practice
In a discussion about the motivations behind social policies, this quote can illustrate the dangers of emotional decision-making.
The more I think about myself, the more I'm persuaded that, as a person, I really don't exist. That is one of the reasons why I can't believe in any orthodox religion: I cannot believe in my own soul. No, I am a chemical compound, conditioned by environment and education. My "character" is simply a repertoire of acquired tricks, my conversation a repertoire of adaptations and echoes, my "feelings" are dictated by purely physical, external stimuli.
A minority is only thought of as a minority when it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority, real or imaginary. And no threat is ever quite imaginary.
What’s so phony nowadays is all this familiarity. Pretending there isn’t any difference between people —well, like you were saying about minorities, this morning. If you and I are no different, what do we have to give each other? How can we ever be friends?
I'm like a book you have to read. A book can't read itself to you. It doesn't even know what it's about. I don't know what I'm about.
I am a camera, with its shutter open. Someday, all of this will be developed, printed, fixed.
I certainly should have,' he agrees, smiling and thinking what an absurd and universally-accepted bit of nonsense it is, that your best friends must necessarily be the ones who best understand you. As if there weren't far too much understanding in the world already; above all, that understanding between lovers, celebrated in song and story, which is actually such torture that no two of them can bear it without frequent separations or fights.
The constitution of Soviet Russia must insure equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex, creed, race, or nationality.
Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God.
I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
You shouldn't change your behavior because a government agency somewhere is doing the wrong thing. If we sacrifice our values because we're afraid, we don't care very much about those values.
I believe everyone should have a good death. You know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. Because after all, tears are appropriate on a death bed. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.
What is true stillness? Stillness in movement.
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